1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing systems, and more specifically, to identification of electronic devices operating within computing systems.
2. Description of Related Art
1-wire link technology, such as the 1-WIRE® technology desired by Dallas Semiconductor Corp., is a communications technology that uses a single data line plus ground reference for communication. A 1-wire master initiates and controls communication with one or more 1-wire slave devices on a bus. Each 1-wire slave device has a unique, unalterable, factory-programmed identification number (ID), which serves as a device address on the bus.
In some instances, a computing system may include multiple 1-wire devices of the same type. Although the devices may each contain a unique identifier for addressability, their positional utilization in the computing system may be unknown. In this case, the problem of placing two or more devices of the same type and use for different functions within the computing system is left for a user of these devices. In the case of, for example, two or more devices of different system functions, it may be unknown which one to address via their unique identifier for use in the system. One solution for providing positional identification may be to provide separate 1-wire networks when two or more of the same devices are needed; however, this defeats the capability of a single wire to enable the network. For this and other reasons, it is desired for providing improved techniques for identifying 1-wire devices or other electronic devices operating within a computing system.